The challenges marketers must tackle in digital transformation
Nearly half of marketers only have fragmented data about their customers. This is one of the conclusions of the study ”Marketing Pain Points and How to Overcome Them”, conducted by Econsultancy and software publisher SmartFocus. What seems surprising is that – conversely – already half of marketers are said to have found the Holy Grail to obtain a 360° view of their customers, by connecting all the databases containing information about their customers, and doing so in real time. That seems overestimated to me in view of the reality encountered among our clients. Perhaps a sampling issue based on the 500 marketing managers interviewed or a matter of bias in the questions.
For whatever the case, given the complexity of the IT layers stacked up year after year, and the difficulty of standardizing the names of data replicated in different databases, one suspects that only pure players – BlaBlaCar or Twitter – with a new information system, have a single view of their customers. Which retailers today master consumer behavior both on their websites and in stores? How many mid-sized companies and large groups have siloed organizations that allow coordinated decision-making between sales and marketing ?
It is common to receive a promotional email about a family of products you have just purchased in store. Likewise, professionals are forced every day to unsubscribe from emails that do not take into account their business or their current interest. More than 80% of people in contact with a company are now simply ignored in corporate marketing according to the Bulldog Solutions study.
The digital transformation currently underway in companies imposes many challenges to tackle. The goal is to enable a unique customer experience, with content delivered to the right people at the right time. And it is worth it : 88% of marketing professionals in the United States have implemented a content marketing strategy in their company according to the Content Marketing Institute, and automating the relationship increases revenue by 10% in 6 to 9 months according to Gartner Research.
Here are 5 priority points to address in order to obtain a single customer view and automate the relationship
1-Free up the company and obtain resources in time, budget, and IT
Wanting it is not enough to make it happen. The whole company must be battle-ready to put the customer at the heart of the system. Freeing organizations from their silos will allow everyone to be a leader on a cross-functional project. Information systems will then be overhauled in order to adapt analysis and decision-making processes in light of the customer journey. Freeing the company and its managerial approach is an opportunity for a complete redesign of reporting systems that place the customer back at the center.
Finally, if the means to be implemented in brand and content strategy require a significant increase in budgets, B2B companies observe on average a 67% increase in their prospects when they create content confirms Social Media BtoB
2-Plan and coordinate IT and development teams
The reality of the first point is that marketing teams rarely have the time, resources, and business agility needed for this (r)evolution. The best way to move forward and learn using the ‘’test & learn’’ method is to outsource. You might as well benefit from the experience curve acquired by numerous agencies and service providers that have already implemented these processes for their clients. So that their current good financial health does not prevent them from anticipating the arrival of a pure player that could wipe them off the map – as in the Kodak textbook case – Arnaud Le Roux from the agency Akka Digital Solution, for example, is preparing insurers for the Fintech revolution.
On the other hand, it is obvious that the provider’s developers will need access to the back offices of the company’s information systems: at a minimum those of the relevant websites and ERP/CRM systems. Bring in the IT teams involved in the development of connection interfaces (APIs) between the applications early in the project.
3-Be able to process large volumes of data
The amount of data available to marketers is not only gigantic, but above all it is now updated in real time. It is necessary not only to be able to analyze it – defining the KPIs to monitor and alert tools – but also to enable the triggering of useful actions toward customers at the moment when the latter exhibits timely behavior. The famous Momentum. Last September I put diesel in my motorcycle – yes I know it’s terrible. It is midnight, my motorcycle stops after 50 meters. I click on my insurer’s application (MAIF), which connects me with its call center. 30 minutes later a truck arrives, loads my motorcycle to put it in a safe place and take it first thing in the morning to the brand’s garage where I have it serviced (BMW). I get my motorcycle back the next day, the experience is perfect, I am smiling.
Wouldn’t that be the ideal time for my insurer to call me and ask me absolutely whatever it wants (satisfaction survey, presentation of a cross-selling offer, proposal for an appointment with an advisor) ? Why wasn’t an automatic action programmed? one that sends a call script to a call center ? Probably because it was not analyzed that X percent of policyholders called after an event resolved in less than an hour accept a new commercial offer. And probably because Marketing Automation tools were not programmed into this digital process. Data Analysts and other Automation specialists are now the key functions of Marketing.
4-Build the customer journey
The consumer or professional customer is multifaceted, and each corresponds to a persona with characteristic interests and behavior. and offer them a purchasing experience that matches them. The Paprika agency has identified the personas targeted by spa care leader Deep Nature. One of them corresponds to Alexandra Dupont, industrial buyer, 35 years old, married and mother of 2 children. Different purchasing experiences are statistically expected. First, Alexandra may be tempted to come alone or occasionally with her girlfriends. Or to prepare a trip for two for Valentine’s Day with her husband in Bora-Bora. Or to plan a team-building stay for the employees of her company. She may react to a message received on her personal social networks. But also via her corporate email. Her purchase may be made online on mobile over the weekend. Or on her computer at the office. And why not in store with an advisor following a qualifying call by a call center.
Depending on these different scenarios, marketing programs a succession of automated actions, from sending a teaser message following a visit to a website to a call from a call center to provide the advice needed for the purchase in store or online. And the experience continues after the sale to build loyalty and why not recruit a new brand ambassador.
5-Plan phases of testing, analysis and campaign optimization
There you go. You have freed your company, obtained total commitment from your interdisciplinary teams, analyses of your data and consumer behaviors, you have developed rock-solid scenarios. But before pressing the “Release” button, you will need to test your campaigns and their many triggers, check that the content is ready and correctly spelled, and that there is not a missing connection in the sequences of the decision tree of your Marketing Automation solution.
You also need to plan the reports that will analyze all the conversion figures of your campaigns from contact acquisition to sale. This is what will showcase all the company’s efforts and make it possible to justify new investments and employee commitment. But it is also the only way to move forward using the Agile method to optimize or duplicate campaigns that work and review the processes of those that have not achieved the desired results. According to Gartner, when correctly executed, Inbound Marketing techniques are 10 times more effective for conversion into a sales opportunity compared with pushing information to the consumer.
You have addressed the five points and you have a single view of your customer. Well done !
At the same time, you have “de-siloed” your company, given initiative to your colleagues, considered your customers at important moments, reassured your prospects at the decisive moment, and your company’s revenue is increasing. It is possible that you will be offered a raise over dinner with the President.
An opportunity to read our Connected Agency Guide 2016 which gives best practices for supporting advertisers in their digital transformation.
